Pyramind vs Cogchime
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pyramind
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Twelve pieces. Fifty-five cells. Two puzzles, one shape language. Pyramind is a quiet polyomino puzzle. You're given the same twelve pieces — five tetrominoes and seven pentominoes — and asked to fit them, exactly, into a five-row flat grid or into a five-layer pyramid. The same pieces, two completely different problems. The pyramid is the harder one. The grid is the welcoming one. Both reward patience. Pick up a piece, drag it over the board and see where it will land before you let go. Green means it fits, red means it doesn't. Prefer tapping? That works too. Every day brings a new Daily Challenge: one puzzle, the same for everyone playing that day. Keep your streak going and watch your progress on the Home screen. Beyond the daily, there are 24 challenges across four difficulties, from Easy to Master. Every challenge starts with a few pieces already placed, so you're never staring at an empty board. Your best times stay with you. Classic grid hands you a random puzzle on the 11 × 5 grid. Sandbox lets you place pieces freely. Free to play: the Daily Challenge, Classic grid, Sandbox, the Easy and Medium challenges and three free hints. Pyramind Pro is a single one-time purchase, no subscription, and unlocks the 3D Pyramid mode, unlimited hints and the Hard and Master challenges. Features • 12 polyomino pieces, identical across both boards • Drag and drop with a live preview of where the piece lands • Flat 11 × 5 grid for the welcoming version • 3D pyramid with five stacked layers for the harder version (Pro) • Daily Challenge with streak tracking • 24 hand-curated challenges (Easy, Medium, Hard, Master) • Classic grid with endless random puzzles • Stats, achievements and personal best times, kept on your device • Dark, minimal interface designed for evenings • Available in English and Dutch • No accounts and no ads For people who want a puzzle to think with, not a puzzle to grind.
Cogchime
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A clockwork music box lies open in front of you. The pegs are bare, the gears are loose in the tray, and the chimes are waiting to be driven. Drag the gears into place and set every chime turning the way its arrow points — the movement closes, and the melody plays. Cogchime is a puzzle game whose rules come entirely from real mechanical transmission. No randomness, no countdown, no move limit, and no penalty for failing. The only pressure comes from the puzzle. ■ THE RULE IS THE PHYSICS Two meshed gears must turn opposite ways. So a chime's direction is decided by the parity of how many bites separate it from the mainspring — that is not a game convention, it is what gears have always done. One look and you know. ■ LESS IS MORE A surplus connection locks the whole mechanism: the moment a closed ring of meshes has odd length, the directions contradict and the whole connected group stalls with a dull thud. The best solution is usually several pieces leaner than your first instinct. ■ ONE FINGER Dragging is the only input: pull a gear from the tray onto a peg, slide it between pegs, drag it back to remove it. No buttons, no menu trees. ■ 158 LEVELS ACROSS 14 CHAPTERS Mesh through Belts and Aftertone are free — 92 levels. The finale and five expansion chapters open with the one-time Full Unlock; Annulus's first two are free to try. Mesh — meshing and reversal; two bites restore the direction. Reversal — an idler bends direction without touching speed. Jam — a gear train is a chain, not a web. Duet — one mainspring, several errands. Spacing — three gear sizes; the distance that meshes is calculated, not guessed. Ratio — an idler cannot change speed; compound gears can. Belts — a belt is a long edge with no flip, joining shafts that never touch. Annulus — an internal ring; wheels hugging its wall turn with it, a circular bus. One-Way — a ratchet permits one direction only; a crossed belt turns it back. Decks — between the plates, coaxial layers run their own routes. Orbit — sun, ring and carrier add and subtract; fix two and the third is fixed. Worm — a belt drives only under tension, and an idle shaft is a brake. Ensemble — the finale: large movements where every mechanic shares the board. Aftertone — the piece-limited challenge; finish with as few gears as possible. ■ DAILY CHALLENGE A new movement every day, the same board for everyone on earth, free. Build your streak. ■ MOVEMENT CODEX Every level you clear is drawn as a blueprint card from your winning board: drafting grid, pegs, mesh construction lines, belt runs, captioned like a museum plate. Meet par and it takes the brass Thrift seal. Open a blueprint and the gears turn; you can replay that level's melody — the codex is also a collection of chimes. Beat your record, or match it with a different solution, and the card is redrawn. ■ CRAFTSMAN'S NOTES Clear every level in a chapter and a page opens on where the principle you just verified by hand comes from in mechanical history: the Antikythera mechanism, the watchmaker's depthing tool, the motion work behind a dial, the crossed belts of the line-shaft era, the epicyclic train, the self-locking worm. Fourteen pieces, short and considered. ■ CLEAN No ads, no subscription, no consumables, no random rewards. No account, nothing to register or sign in to. Two one-time purchases and nothing else: Full Unlock opens the remaining 66 levels with their blueprints and notes, later chapters included at no extra charge and no second content purchase ever; Supporter's Chime adds the Gilt Lacquer theme and no levels. What you have unlocked plays offline; buying and restoring need a connection. Apart from feedback you choose to send, the game transmits nothing to any server, and payment goes through the App Store — never through us. ■ CONSIDERATE Three themes: Walnut, Drafting Paper, and the supporters' Gilt Lacquer. Sound can be turned off. Honours the system "reduce motion" setting. Interface and content text in 13 languages.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cogchime at none against Pyramind's 1. Cogchime also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Pyramind sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cogchime asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pyramind ships an update every 2 weeks, Cogchime fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pyramind | Cogchime |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 58 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mario Steenbergen | 泽标 胡 |
In-app purchases
Pyramind
- Pyramind Pro$2.99
Cogchime
No in-app purchases





